Linux Email for Business

January 17, 2001

By
Dennis E. Powell

Appraising an application based on a
preview release is always a risky thing, because it requires the
writer to see things that aren't there yet. I'll try to avoid that
trap now by noting that as it sits, once it's configured and running,
Aethera does what it already does very nicely. KDE2 users who want
IMAP compatibility will find it an able email program -- though
please, please don't post HTML messages to mailing lists, okay? --
while those who have a great many contacts to manage will find the
email and contact list integration satisfying. The preview release is
stable in my brief experience, though as with any mail application in
early development it makes good sense to configure it to leave mail
on the server, just in case.

Presuming the vigorous development
promised by theKompany.com, Aethera is likely to bloom into an
imaginative and powerful application that does far more than manage
electronic mail, addresses, and notes. No doubt it will become, more
closely integrated with the KOffice suite of applications, either by
theKompany.com's design or by the work of clever hackers. With the
preview release, Aethera demonstrates that the framework is in place
for a powerful businessware application for Linux.